Monday, February 24, 2014

India: Fourth Most Dangerous Country For Journalist In 2013

By Saraswathi Muniappan

NEW DELHI, Feb 20 (Bernama) -- India was listed as the fourth most dangerous country for journalist with 13 deaths recorded last year, London-based, International News Safety Institute (INSI) revealed in a report.

The annual report entitled 'Killing The Messenger 2013,' compiled for INSI by the Cardiff School of Journalism in Wales, said that 134 journalists and media staff were killed doing their work in 29 countries last year.

Syria and Pakistan were among the world's five most dangerous countries for journalists. Iraq, the Philippines and India were also in the top five this year.

"Twenty journalists died in Syria, which was the bloodiest country for journalists for a second year. Sixteen died in Iraq, 14 died in the Philippines, 13 died in India and nine died in Pakistan," the report said.

However, the toll is down by almost 12 per cent compared to the 152 who died in 2012, although INSI is worried by what appears to be a rise in the numbers of assaults, threats and kidnappings of journalists - which go unreported for the most part.

"Killing the Messenger" showed that 65 journalists lost their lives in armed conflict situations, however, most journalists (69) were killed in peacetime while covering issues such as crime and corruption.

"Most journalists were targeted, and shooting was the most common cause of death (63 per cent of such cases)," the report said.

However, 18 died in accidents - eight of them on the road.

"Other accidents included four journalists killed by typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, one journalist killed at a construction site in China and one killed by an elephant in India."

Local journalists bore the brunt of the deadly violence aimed at news media with 123 or 92 per cent killed while covering their own country, it said.

Print journalists were the most at risk, with 45 killed while doing their work.

The report said that "most of the killers of journalists" enjoyed complete impunity, as it found that legal proceedings were conducted in only three cases while most of the assailants remain unidentified.

As a safety organisation, INSI records all deaths, whether deliberate, accidental or health-related, of all news media staff, support staff and freelancers while on assignment or as a result of their news organisation being attacked because of its work.